function

diocesan priest

creed

Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]

diocese / province

Vilnius archdiocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Pinsk diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]

academic distinctions

Doctor of Canon Law

date and place
of death

15.07.1943

Svislachtoday: Svislach dist., Grodno reg., Belarus
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.29]

alt. dates and places
of death

13.07.1943

details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

Wiszownik forestClick to display the description, Black July 1943Click to display the description, Collective responsibility („Hostages”)Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

20.03.1893

(f. Vawkavysk county territory)today: Belarus
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2024.03.19]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

1918

positions held

others related
in death

BESZTA–BOROWSKIClick to display biography Anthony, BURAKClick to display biography Mark, KLIMCZAKClick to display biography Michael Eugene (Fr Dennis), KOCHANOWSKIClick to display biography Felix, KUŹMICKIClick to display biography Witold, OLSZEWSKIClick to display biography Louis, OPIATOWSKIClick to display biography Henry, PĘZAClick to display biography Alexander, PŁOŃSKIClick to display biography Joseph, ROSZAKClick to display biography Edmund, RUTKOWSKIClick to display biography Bronislav, SKOKOWSKIClick to display biography Justin, SZULCClick to display biography Joseph, SZYPIŁŁOClick to display biography Casimir

sites and events
descriptions

Wiszownik forest: In the Wiszownik forest c. 2 km from Svislach on 15.07.1943 (or 13.07.1943 according to some sources) Germans murdered, as part of their extermination program against partisans, approx. 55 Poles, mainly from Wołkowysk county, jailed as „captive hostages”. Among the victims were 4 local priests. Earlier, in 11.1942, the Germans murdered c. 1,536 Jews from the Svislach area in the same place. (more on: www.flickr.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.10.05])

Black July 1943: On 20.05.1943 East Prussia German Gaulaiter, Erich Koch, nominated Otton Helwig a new German commander of SS und Polizeiführer (Eng. SS and police commander) of Bezirk (Eng. region) Białystok. He immediately initiated a pacification action ostensibly targeted at Polish partisans. The real aim was intimidation of the Poles from Białystok region and extermination of its leading classes. Herbert Zimmermann, security police and SD commanded, deputy commander of Einsatzgruppen SS (Eng. Operational Groups) for Germ. Bezirk (district) Bialystok, issued an order to arrest and execute 19 people, physicians, barristers, city staff and teacher, including their families, in each all county cities of the district. On 10.07.1943 a „Commando Müller” (from the surname of its murderous commander, prob. Hermann Müller), consisting of Belarus support batallion, Lithuanian units dressed in German uniforms, German Gendarmerie and police and German Gestapo members, perpetrated a series of mass murders in various places in Bezirk Białystok (including its Łomża and Grodno regions). In 07.1943 Germans murdered more than 1,000 people (prob. near 2,000). On 15.07.1943 only in all county seats of Bezirk Bialystok at least 9 local Polish intelligentsia families, including women, children and old were selected and murdered. Among the victims were many priests: in executions in Pilice forest, Wiszownik forest, Kosówka forest, Navumavichy, Jeziorka, etc. Germans murdered at least 15 clerics. (more on: www.swzygmunt.knc.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.10.13])

Collective responsibility („Hostages”): A criminal practice implemented by the Germans in the occupied territories of Poland, applied from the very first day of World War II. At its core was an appointment and public announcement of a list of names of selected people whose lives depended on absolute compliance with German orders. Any violation of these ordinances, by any person, regardless of the circumstances, resulted in the murder of the designated „hostages”. In the first days of the war and occupation, it was used i.a. by the German Wehrmacht army to prevent acts of continuation of the defense by the Poles. Later, especially in the German‐run General Governorate, it was part of the official policy of the occupation authorities — collective responsibility for any acts of resistance to the occupier's practices. For the life of one German, even if death was due to customary reasons, the Germans carried out executions from a dozen to even a hundred Poles previously designated as „hostages”.

Ribbentrop‐Molotov: Genocidal Russian‐German alliance pact between Russian leader Joseph Stalin and German leader Adolf Hitler signed on 23.08.1939 in Moscow by respective foreign ministers, Mr. Vyacheslav Molotov for Russia and Joachim von Ribbentrop for Germany. The pact sanctioned and was the direct cause of joint Russian and German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of the World War II in 09.1939. In a political sense, the pact was an attempt to restore the status quo ante before 1914, with one exception, namely the „commercial” exchange of the so‐called „Kingdom of Poland”, which in 1914 was part of the Russian Empire, fore Eastern Galicia (today's western Ukraine), in 1914 belonging to the Austro‐Hungarian Empire. Galicia, including Lviv, was to be taken over by the Russians, the „Kingdom of Poland” — under the name of the General Governorate — Germany. The resultant „war was one of the greatest calamities and dramas of humanity in history, for two atheistic and anti‐Christian ideologies — national and international socialism — rejected God and His fifth Decalogue commandment: Thou shall not kill!” (Abp Stanislav Gądecki, 01.09.2019). The decisions taken — backed up by the betrayal of the formal allies of Poland, France and Germany, which on 12.09.1939, at a joint conference in Abbeville, decided not to provide aid to attacked Poland and not to take military action against Germany (a clear breach of treaty obligations with Poland) — were on 28.09.1939 slightly altered and made more precise when a treaty on „German‐Russian boundaries and friendship” was agreed by the same murderous signatories. One of its findings was establishment of spheres of influence in Central and Eastern Europe and in consequence IV partition of Poland. In one of its secret annexes agreed, that: „the Signatories will not tolerate on its respective territories any Polish propaganda that affects the territory of the other Side. On their respective territories they will suppress all such propaganda and inform each other of the measures taken to accomplish it”. The agreements resulted in a series of meeting between two genocidal organization representing both sides — German Gestapo and Russian NKVD when coordination of efforts to exterminate Polish intelligentsia and Polish leading classes (in Germany called «Intelligenzaktion», in Russia took the form of Katyń massacres) where discussed. Resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands of Polish intelligentsia, including thousands of priests presented here, and tens of millions of ordinary people,. The results of this Russian‐German pact lasted till 1989 and are still in evidence even today. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30])

Pius XI's encyclicals: Facing the creation of two totalitarian systems in Europe, which seemed to compete with each other, though there were more similarities than contradictions between them, Pope Pius XI issued in 03.1937 (within 5 days) two encyclicals. In the „Mit brennender Sorge” (Eng. „With Burning Concern”) published on 14.03.1938, condemned the national socialism prevailing in Germany. The Pope wrote: „Whoever, following the old Germanic‐pre‐Christian beliefs, puts various impersonal fate in the place of a personal God, denies the wisdom of God and Providence […], whoever exalts earthly values: race or nation, or state, or state system, representatives of state power or other fundamental values of human society, […] and makes them the highest standard of all values, including religious ones, and idolizes them, this one […] is far from true faith in God and from a worldview corresponding to such faith”. On 19.03.1937, published „Divini Redemptoris” (Eng. „Divine Redeemer”), in which criticized Russian communism, dialectical materialism and the class struggle theory. The Pope wrote: „Communism deprives man of freedom, and therefore the spiritual basis of all life norms. It deprives the human person of all his dignity and any moral support with which he could resist the onslaught of blind passions […] This is the new gospel that Bolshevik and godless communism preaches as a message of salvation and redemption of humanity”… Pius XI demanded that the established human law be subjected to the natural law of God , recommended the implementation of the ideal of a Christian state and society, and called on Catholics to resist. Two years later, National Socialist Germany and Communist Russia came together and started World War II. (more on: www.vatican.vaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.05.28], www.vatican.vaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.05.28])

sources

personal:
www.bialystok.opoka.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06], www.polacyizydzi.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.02.15], www.bj.uj.edu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19]
bibliographical:
„Martyrology of the Polish Roman Catholic clergy under nazi occupation in 1939‐1945”, Victor Jacewicz, John Woś, vol. I‐V, Warsaw Theological Academy, 1977‐1981
„Vilnius archdiocese clergy martyrology 1939‐1945”, Fr Thaddeus Krahel, Białystok, 2017